Reese Kaplan -- The 2000's Are Back Once Again

Do you remember those Bobby Valentine days when the Mets would field a team that had a virtual All Star at nearly every position?  I know, I know…it takes a healthy dose of Gingko Biloba to remember back that far.  After all, we have seen the athletic stylings of such luminaries like Eric Campbell, James Loney, Omar Quintanilla, Anthony Recker and a list of pitchers so long it would give you eyestrain. 

Still, as you begin to approach the oncoming 2020 baseball season there’s something very strange occurring with the roster.  You have Pete Alonso at 1B, reigning Rookie of the Year and All Star Game home run champion.  He’s been ranked 3^rd among all 1^st basemen in baseball.  At 2B you have the slow starting (and slowly recovering) Robinson Cano who demonstrated in September his .345 range of hitting.  Amed Rosario at SS demonstrated what all the hype was about when he finished with the best offensive numbers of any Mets shortstop since Jose Reyes (first time around).  3B will hopefully go to Jeff McNeil rather than Jed “Waldo” Lowrie.  He’s only a .319 career hitter.  Wilson Ramos demonstrated what an offensive force a catcher can be (even if defensively he’s deemed offensive to some of the pitchers).  J.D. Davis was a steal from the Houston Astros.  Michael Conforto had his first 30 HR season.  The only somewhat question mark in the entire lineup is Brandon Nimmo who missed most of 2019 but showed good form when he returned later in the year.  Then throw in the fact you still may have to make room for Yoenis Cespedes and others…hey, this 2020 team offensively looks pretty formidable. 

Pitching-wise they’re a bit less scary.  True, you have reigning consecutive-year Cy Young winner Jacob deGrom as your ace, but then it drops.  Marcus Stroman took awhile to get headed in the right direction.  Noah Syndergaard has had a great start to his career but has also spent a lot of time on the injured list.  Steve Matz can be very good or very bad.  You just don’t know from start-to-start.  Then there are the Zack Wheeler replacements of Rick Porcello (mostly awful the past few years) or Michael Wacha (mostly injured).  They did reinforce the bullpen with an All-Star arm in Dellin Betances, but people worry that it’s held on by duct tape.  Everyone assumes that last year’s debacles by Edwin Diaz and Jeurys Familia will not repeat.  Seth Lugo was outstanding and everyone hopes for a repeat.  Ditto from Justin Wilson.  The rest of the bullpen is still somewhat shaky. 

The good news when you look at the Mets team is that the only key player over age 30 in a crucial position is deGrom.  The others like Cespedes haven’t contributed for most of the last two years (or in Lowrie’s case, just one year on hiatus).  However, it might be time to see if you can peddle away some of the older players with the bigger paychecks to other teams in the hopes of finding the next J.D. Davis. 

Everyone is assuming that with the arrival of Steve Cohen will come the arrival of a never ending payroll and a blusterous amount of action in free agency.  While that might be nice to operate in the Bronx style of buying a pennant, as we have seen it doesn’t always work and there is no guarantee that Cohen is a neo-Steinbrenner.  Consequently I think the club ought to start think about fortifying its upper minor leagues rather than sitting idly by awaiting the guys in rookie ball and single A. 

If you live your diamond life by the calendar, it’s a hair over two weeks until pitchers and catchers report to Port St. Lucie.  At least now we know who will manage this team, but not who will own this team or who is healthy enough to play on this team.  However, from the first smack of the pitch into the catcher’s big leather glove and the sound of our hitters lining misguided pitches between fielders (or over the fence), we will be happy baseball is back.